Randy Couture

From ESPN, here’s this week’s installment of MMA Live with Jon Anik, Kenny Florian, and Franklin McNeil. ESPN the Magazine’s Ryan Hockensmith, Dana White, Randy Couture, and Brock Lesnar all serve as special guests as well.

Above is the third entry for Dana White‘s video blog for UFC 88: Breakthrough, which takes place this Saturday night in Atlanta, Georgia. Here White travels to ESPN studios to do some promotion for UFC 91 along with Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar. Then the group picks up Kenny Florian and heads to New York City to meet the cast of HBO’s Entourage.

UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar, who will be fighting each other at UFC 91 on November 15 in Las Vegas, were featured this morning on ESPN’s SportsCenter. You have to love the media coverage that this fight is getting already.

Above is the second entry for Dana White‘s video blog for UFC 88: Breakthrough, which takes place this Saturday night in Atlanta, Georgia. Here he talks about the return of UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture and answers questions along with Randy for yesterday’s conference call to announce UFC 91, where Couture will face Brock Lesnar.

After a year-long feud between Couture and the UFC saw both sides battle it out in court and in the media, UFC President Dana White announced today that the promotion has inked Couture to a new multi-fight deal that will have him take on former professional wrestler and upstart contender Brock Lesnar at UFC 91 on November 15.

The mega-fight will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas instead of Portland, Oregon’s Rose Garden as previously expected and will be for Couture’s UFC heavyweight title.

“We’ve had problems with Randy over the last few months, but we’ve resolved them all,” White said on a media conference call this afternoon. “Randy has always been our heavyweight champion. We can basically put on fights that fans want to see now. Mark my words, Couture vs. Lesnar will be the biggest fight in UFC history.”

The UFC has announced a media conference call for 3pm EST today, September 2, 2008. Its widely rumored that Dana White will announce a resolution to the Randy Couture vs Zuffa Inc legal battle in the form of a new contract and a proposed fight with Brock Lesnar in November of this year.

Ten and a half months ago, Couture suddenly resigned from the UFC and relinquished his heavyweight title. Couture’s unhappiness with his contract terms and the UFC’s inability to sign Fedor Emelianenko to a mega fight with Couture prompted the resignation. But the UFC refused to accept it, thus tying up the legendary fighter in a court battle for the last year. Apparently, court ordered arbitration that has occured the last month may have lead to a resolution of the argument.

Update 11:37 PM ET: Dave Meltzer is now reporting that Couture in the midst of negotiating with the UFC for a new three-fight deal that will have him headline UFC 91 in Portland, Oregon against Brock Lesnar. If a deal is signed, an official announcement is expected to be made next week.

Just as rumors circulate that embattled heavyweight champion Randy Couture would be interested in fighting for the UFC one last time, Couture may now reportedly be signing a new long-term deal with the promotion according to Michael Rome of Bloody Elbow:

I’ve spoken with a lot of people about Randy Couture in the last day. Things are definitely happening.

First, I can say with 100% certainty that there are current negotiations for Randy Couture to return in November to main event, and that the current proposed opponent is Brock Lesnar. They can’t get Fedor, too many issues to work out on short notice, and he has a US-only non compete with Affliction.

This will be a new contract, not a return to the old one. It will likely pay him more and give him more benefits, but it will lock him into the UFC for the long term. In exchange for signing it Zuffa would drop all breach of contract charges.

With a legal victory over the Ultimate Fighting Championship now looking unlikely for embattled UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, sources are claiming that the Team Quest and Xtreme Couture co-founder could return to the promotion for one last fight before the end of the year according to MMA Junkie.

Couture’s temporary return to the organization would be part of a deal that would settle his ongoing battle with the UFC in Las Vegas court over the terms of his current contract. Neither Couture nor the UFC have made any indication about the rumors even being partially true.

According to Michael Rome of Bloody Elbow, this apparently isn’t the first time that Couture has offered to return to the UFC for a “one-and-done” type deal.

After former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell was forced out of his main event slot at UFC 85 in June due to injury, Couture reportedly offered to take on interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira if the UFC would leave Couture free and clear of the rest of his contract. The UFC was said to have turned down the offer.

Rumors have been floating around for the past couple of days on various messages boards stating that the UFC may be interested in having Couture headline UFC 91 in November, possibly against fellow standout wrestler Brock Lesnar. However once again, neither side has commented on the matter.

Perennial top heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko sat down with Raw Vegas for an interview yesterday at Affliction’s brand-new store in Los Angeles, California. In the above video, Fedor talks about his future in the sport, his thoughts on UFC President Dana White, his interest in fighting Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar, and his pre-fight preparation methods.

After the jump, Mike Straka of Fox News talks with famous boxing and MMA cutman, Jacob “Stitch” Duran, as he wraps the hands of middleweight contender Jason MacDonald before his fight with Demian Maia at UFC 87 this past weekend.